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Show SCHOOL OF MINES VORK BROADENED New Contract Signed With Government Govern-ment Officials of Great Import, once to Mining Men of the West. Tho announcement of Dean Joseph V. Merrill of the school ot mines In the University of I'tnh that a new contract has been signed with officials of the United States bureau ot mines, is of more lmportanco than appears on the surfnee. It means that the metallurgical work In tho university can bo carried on more extensively than ever before. And what Is this "metallurgical" work? Just this. Utah contains vast quantities of low grade zinc and lead ores which havo not been developed because no commercial processes havo been found for extracting tho minerals. Tho whole purpose of tho bureau of mines hero nt the present lime Is tho discovering of such processes. pro-cesses. Research work of an Intenslvo character char-acter is being carried on In tho university uni-versity laboratories with this objective objec-tive aim. Four big companies nro maintaining men thcro. Ucsldcs these thcro are a number of graduate students stu-dents doing special work In metallurgy. metal-lurgy. Any student graduated from the mining or chemical courses can enter this department for his master's degree, and thcro are various fellowships fellow-ships to aid such students. Nothing which is discovered or developed de-veloped In these laboratories can bo patented by Individuals. It belongs to the public, having been dono at public pub-lic expense,. The University of Utah Is now one of the best places in the United States for such research worn. Salt Lako City Is the greatest smelting center in the country, so tho nearness ot mines and smelters offers fine opportunity oppor-tunity for actual contact. The bureau of mines hero receives an annual appropriation ap-propriation from the national government govern-ment of about $20,000 while the university uni-versity department with which It will work In the closest co-operation receives re-ceives from tho state about JJ7.B00 per year. Such mining work as this Is logically log-ically the special field ot the Utah engineering school. |